Let's get this out of the way. I agree with Piketty's overall conclusion in Capital about inequality, that: the distribution of wealth in many industrial nations is highly unequal, wealth concentration has been increasing; and there is a high likelihood that the extent of wealth inequality will continue to grow unless appropriate fiscal policy is used to reverse current trends. However, I don't agree with:

Trade deals are pushing to permanently, irreversibly eliminate longstanding US restrictions on natural gas exporting which could mean heating, cooking gas, hot water, etc. costs (all natural gas related costs) in the USA could easily go up a great deal. The US energy industry is clearly very excited about the United States becoming a major natural gas supplier to the world.

In my last post, I took issue with a recent column by Catherine Rampell, who tries to make the case that seniors haven't paid for their Social Security and Medicare because they “generally receive” more in benefits out of these programs than they pay into them. Rampell relies on an Urban Institute study to make her case. Since that post, she's offered another that replies to some of the questions raised by commenters on her earlier effort. I'll reply to that new post shortly, but first I want to present key points emerging from my analysis of Federal monetary operations in my reply to her earlier post. See that post for the full argument.

First, once Congress mandates spending, there is no way that the Treasury can be forced into insolvency or an inability to pay its obligations as long as it is willing to make use of all the ways it can cause the Fed to create reserve credits in Treasury spending accounts which can then be used for its reserve keystroking into private sector account activities that today represent most of the reality of Federal spending. Read more about More Misdirection from Rampell in the Service of Generational War

Many MMT posts and other writings on fiscal responsibility, including my own, focus on the myths of neoliberalism, pointing out why they are myths and developing an alternative MMT perspective in some detail. Off hand, and I may have forgotten something, I couldn't think of a brief positive MMT narrative related to fiscal responsibility containing primarily the truths, rather than the myths. Read more about An MMT Fiscal Responsibility Narrative: Some Truths After Crowd Sourcing Revision

Many MMT posts and other writings on fiscal responsibility, including my own, focus on the myths of neoliberalism, pointing out why they are myths and developing an alternative MMT perspective in some detail. Off hand, and I may have forgotten something, I couldn't think of a brief positive MMT narrative containing primarily the truths, rather than the myths. So, here's my version. Comments, criticisms, recasting in more effective form, are all welcome.

[I'm leaving this sticky because I've been struggling for months with a massive theory of everything on the market state, and this discussion is useful to me. So feel free to stretch out with theories in comments! --lambert]

[I'm stickying this because the thread this comment came from was terrific, and because the writer is combining a lot of ideas in a very concise way -- and his grandma bought in! Hard to argue with that... Also, I like Theories of Everything, which this post is. --lambert] Read more about Parasitism and Pooling

I got to thinking today about how neocon and neoliberal are becoming interchangeable terms. They did not start out that way. My understanding is they are ways of rationalizing breaks with traditional conservatism and liberalism. Standard conservatism was fairly isolationist. Conservatism's embrace of the Cold War put it at odds with this tendency. This was partially resolved by accepting the Cold War as a military necessity despite its international commitments but limiting civilian programs like foreign aid outside this context and rejecting the concept of nation building altogether. Read more about Thoughts on Neoconservatism and Neoliberalism

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The 12-point platform

"The 12-Point Platform" is a simple list of common-sense programs that will benefit every American, no matter their class, gender, race, or age (PDF).

Marine slang: A clusterfuck was any group of Marines big enough to draw enemy fire, or several Marines close enough together to be wounded by the same incoming round. More generically, a clusterfuck was something that was all screwed up, i.e. "That blocking operation was a giant clusterfuck!" Whenever three or more CAP Marines gathered in the open, talking or working on something, somebody was sure to call out "clusterfuck!" and one or more guys would walk away. (<a href="http://capmarine.com/cap/glossary.htm#C">Capmarine.com</a>)</blockquote>Clearly, Bush's war of choice in Iraq is "all screwed up"; that makes it a clusterfuck by definition. However, the term is even more <i>a propos</i>. Tactically, Bush's war of choice in Iraq is a clusterfuck. The analogy to "Marines close enough together to be wounded by the same incoming round" is clear. In Vietnam, "in the open" meant being exposed in the rice paddies or jungles. In Iraq, "in the open" means (1) urban warfare where (2) troops (and contractors) must be supplied by trucks which (3) are not armored thereby making them vulnerable to (4) the "incoming rounds" of IEDs placed along the roadside. Nice work, Inerrant Boy. (And the resonance to the words of Matthew 18:20, "wherever two or three are gathered together," is heartbreaking.) NOTE: A tip of the Ol' Corrente Hat to the man in the grey turtleneck for <a href="http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_08_14_atrios_archive.html#11244662886927... the word "clusterfuck"</a> when applied to Bush's war of choice in Iraq.

Citibank Plutonomy files

"What could go wrong?
Beyond war, inflation, the end of the technology/productivity wave, and financial collapse, we think the most potent and short-term threat would be societies demanding a more ‘equitable’ share of wealth."

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